Teachers jobs at Risk

Jonothan Raymond,

And there's the irony. This amazing teacher is one of 405 certificated employees in Sacramento City Unified School District that have been pink-slipped – one of thousands of hardworking, dedicated educators across the state. "I love what I'm doing," says Cooperman, "but it's so hard not to feel like you're not valued when you get a pink slip."

Without the extension of current temporary taxes, our district faces a $22.35 million deficit for 2011-12. To address this shortfall, our Board of Education approved painful cuts, including the elimination of most bus service, the elimination of all extracurricular activities like sports, drama and yearbook, and increased class sizes. With bigger class sizes, the district needs fewer teachers. Hence the pink slips.

Recently, The Bee published a commentary on tax extensions and education written by state Sen. Ted Gaines of Roseville, one of the Republicans opposed to giving voters a chance to weigh in on the future of K-12 education.

In his article, Gaines ignores the years of cuts public schools have endured as legislators chose time and again to balance the budget on the backs of children – $18 billion in cuts in the last three years. Our district has cut its budget by $177 million in the last nine years – a 35 percent reduction. Last year, SCUSD slashed its central office administration by $5.6 million to keep reductions away from classrooms.

Gaines also fails to address the possibility that the state will once again suspend Proposition 98, the constitutional guarantee passed by voters in 1988 that determines a minimum level of school funding. As Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, recently told The Bee, "There isn't a chance in the world that Proposition 98 will be sustained if $12 billion disappears from the budget."

Instead, Gaines poses a series of questions – no answers – about state spending, using hot-button examples. "What about prison costs?" he writes. "What about public employee pensions … ? What about the welfare system?"

With all due respect, Sen. Gaines, California will have higher prison costs, more inmates and more citizens dependent on state and federal services if we fail to adequately fund our schools.

Gaines ends his piece by saying that "ultimately, it is growth – job creation in the private sector – that will fill the state treasury and make our state golden once again." Here we agree. But will California's future workforce have the skills required to succeed in these jobs? Not unless we invest in our young people.

Providing each and every student in the state with a quality education is our best hope for retaining our state's luster. We must prepare our children for an ever-evolving, 21st-century global economy by giving them the knowledge, skills and habits that come only with a rigorous, relevant and well-rounded education. Jamming students into overloaded classrooms and taking away all the activities that make school what it is – such as sports and the arts – is contrary to this work and abhorrent to everyone who grew up in a time when California's public school system was among the best in the nation.

After a public vote of "Live! With Regis and Kelly's" viewers, Cooperman lost her chance to go to New York. She said later that she wasn't disappointed so much for herself but for the Sutter Middle School parents who launched the letter-writing campaign. "I wanted to win so their work would feel valued," she said. "I wanted to pass down this whole idea of being valued."

Californians can learn a lot from this teacher. Nelson Mandela once said: "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children."

Let's treat our children right. Let's value education. Let's value our schools. Our future depends on it.

From the Sacramento Bee- Opinion page.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/04/30/3590606/an-amazing-teachers-job-shouldnt.html#ixzz1L1qw9zIG

Proposition 24.

YES on Prop 24 – The Tax Fairness Act

Prop 24 prevents $1.3 billion in tax breaks to big corporations that would impose further budget cuts to schools, public safety and critical services. Prop 24 would save thousands of much needed jobs.

·         Why Proposition 24 should get your vote:

o   The Tax Fairness Act will prevent another $1.3 billion in cuts to our public schools

o   It will save 22,000 jobs for teachers, nurses and firefighters

o   It will keep corporate taxes as they are today and prevent $1.3 billion in tax giveaways to 2% of California’s wealthiest corporations from kicking in next year

Thousands of California teachers will keep their jobs

Tonight, President Obama will sign into law a bill that will save over 160,000 educator jobs and provide millions in critical public education funding throughout the country.

This is a huge moment for our educators, our students and our schools.

When we open the doors to our schools this fall, those 160,000 teachers and education support professionals will be coming back to work thanks to your tremendous commitment and activism over these past weeks and months.
Note, about 16,000 teacher jobs will be saved in California.

We, of course, couldn’t have done it without the help of pro-public education lawmakers in the House and Senate. They stood up for our students and our educators – so let’s thank them and let them know we will stand by them this fall.


In this moment, we can celebrate the impact our work is having on educators and students throughout the country. But we can’t stop here. We have to continue to push for pro-public education reforms in Congress. We have to continue to fight for educators and students in every corner of every state. And we have to stand up for pro-public education candidates every day until November 2nd, election day. 


You can keep our momentum going today by thanking your representative right now and let them know that when they stand for us, we will stand by them in the fall.

Thank your representative for saving educators’ jobs.

Thanks for all your hard work and determination. Today wouldn’t have been possible without you.

Keep the momentum going,

Dennis Van Roekel
President
National Education Association

Teachers jobs- education funding

The U.S. House of Representatives just delivered a major victory for America’s educators. Now, we have to keep up the pressure and get the Senate on board. Thanks to your calls, letters, and visits, the House approved $10 billion in new funds to prevent over 130,000 educators from being laid off -- averting severe cuts that would hurt students, teachers, education support professionals, and our public schools. Now the bill moves to the Senate, where we face a challenging path. It’ll take a massive show of support from members like you to make sure the Senate votes to approve these vital funds. Call 1-866-608-6355 to be automatically connected to your Senator’s office. Make sure your Senator knows that education jobs are important to you. With many states facing budget shortfalls, hundreds of thousands of teachers’ and education support professionals’ jobs are at risk. But this challenge is about much more than protecting jobs. Our students’ futures shouldn’t be put in danger by today’s short-sighted budget decisions. Education jobs funding would keep our public schools strong -- making sure that our students get the quality public education they deserve. That’s why I’m asking you to call your Senator today and speak up for education and kids. Dial 1-866-608-6355 and tell your Senator to support America’s students and educators. Let’s raise our voices and make sure the Senate knows how much is riding on this critical funding. Thanks for getting involved. Dennis Van Roekel President National Education Association P.S. Please visit http://educationvotes.nea.org for the latest news on this important legislation.

US Senate Fails jobs bill

Earlier this afternoon, the US Senate failed to pass its version of jobs legislation. In response, Jean Ross, executive director of the California Budget Project, a nonpartisan public policy research group, issued this statement: "Nearly 1.5 million unemployed California workers won't receive unemployment insurance (UI) benefits that they would spend quickly and close to home, boosting the local economy and helping local businesses avoid layoffs. More than 2 million people nationwide will lose these benefits if Congress fails to act before leaving for the July 4 recess. California won't receive $1.8 billion in federal assistance - funds assumed in the Governor's May Revision, as well as the Senate and Assembly budget plans - forcing even deeper spending cuts than those enacted in recent budgets and already on the table as a result of the unprecedented drop in revenues brought on by the recession. These actions will cause private- and public-sector job losses and raise the risk of a double-dip recession as the loss of spending power ripples through the economy. Without more federal aid, state budget-cutting actions nationwide place at risk as many as 900,000 jobs over the next year. California will have to end its TANF Emergency Fund, which has enabled counties across the state to create 20,000 jobs, putting people back to work and keeping dollars flowing through local economies. Congress should not leave for the July 4 holiday until it extends unemployment benefits, provides additional aid to cash-strapped states, and extends funding for the TANF emergency jobs programs."  Jean Ross. California Budget Project

Endless teacher layoffs

by Ann Bibby:An endless summer awaits many of Detroit's teachers and school buildings this Thursday. Detroit, one of the poorest and most dangerous cities in America, is about to add thousands of teachers to its unemployment rolls and dozens of buildings to its vacancy problem. A third of this cash-strapped city is reported to be vacant already. The closing of more schools could be the death knell for many of the remaining neighborhoods in these dire economic times.

Although the city has a five-year plan to renovate or replace school buildings, funded in part by federal stimulus, 32 buildings will be closed permanently by the end of the year, with a dozen more to follow over the next two years.

Detroit is not the only urban school district facing massive staff layoffs, and tasked with shuttering schools. Kansas City will close 26 of its 66 schools. Cleveland will lose 14 schools. And the state of California is braced for massive teacher reductions.

With the edu-jobs bill still stalled in Congress -- and likely to remain their over the summer break despite the recent personal appeal by the White House to pass it -- Detroit is unlikely to be financially able to hire back many, or any teachers, making the 2010/11 school year a challenging one for school officials, parents, remaining teachers and their students.

Regardless, the schools are gone and no amount of last minute funding will bring them back.

What caused this crisis?

 The nation  including California is suffering a severe recession.  Twenty Six million  are unemployed and under employed. This crisis was created by finance capital and banking, mostly on Wall Street ,ie. Chase Banks, Bank of America, AIG, and others.   Finance capital produced a $ 2 trillion bailout of the financial industry, the doubling of America’s unemployment rate and the loss of 2 million manufacturing jobs in 2008.  Fifteen million people are out of work.  You and I, and college students did not create this crisis.  Finance capital stole the future of many young people.

Paul Krugman, The return of depression economics and the crisis of 2008.  (2009)

Dean Baker,  Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy, (2009)

Jobs for teachers- stalled in the Senate

Education Jobs Fund. A part of Jobs for Main Street Act.  At present the legislation is being held up in the Senate.  Why? Because  a number of Senators –including some Democrats- believe that the deficit is the most important issue; not jobs.  This is a failure to understand the basic of Keynes.   See: Why We Are Moving Toward a Recessionary Era, and Why  Keynes is Being Exhumed

New attempt to create jobs for teachers

New Push Launched for Education Jobs Bill

By Alyson Klein

The presidents of both national teachers' unions joined key lawmakers and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on Capitol Hill today to drum up support for legislation that would provide $23 billion to help school districts cope with a looming tidal wave of layoffs.

Supporters say up to 300,000 education jobs-including teachers, support-staff members, and others-may be riding on the latest version of the bill, which relies on a funding mechanism that supporters say is more narrowly targeted than previous education aid under the federal economic-stimulus program.

Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said he plans to introduce the measure as an amendment to the must-pass emergency-spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that his panel is considering tomorrow.

The original plan was for the Senate to vote on the language first, but the measure's sponsor, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said yesterday he didn't have the 60 votes needed to cut off debate in order to pass the bill.

But if the language makes it through the House of Representatives, it can be included in a conference report reconciling the two bills. Conference reports can't be amended, so if Republicans and moderate Democrats in the Senate decided to vote against the measure, they'd also be voting against the entire war supplemental-spending bill and could be accused of defunding the troops in an election year.

The House passed a similar provision on a different jobs bill back in December. But that vote was very close, and the legislation isn't a sure bet this time around. Moderate Democrats are concerned that there is no cut to offset the new education spending. And many Republicans oppose what they deem a "bailout" for education.

Supporters of the bill were quick to point out what they see as the reasons lawmakers may suffer politically if they don't vote in favor of the legislation.

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, said that school districts, which have been working to implement changes to improve education, would have to lay off teachers because of problems caused by "financial scandals," an apparent reference to Wall Street.

"It will be a scandal on this Congress" if lawmakers fail to act, he said.

Administration Backing

Secretary Duncan said that educators play a role in the overall economy, purchasing houses and groceries and contributing to their communities, so the economic impact of massive layoffs could be substantial. He said that the bill's language has the full support of the White House, and that he has spoken personally to President Barack Obama about it.

The language Mr. Obey is scheduled to introduce in his committee on Thursday differs from other versions of the bill in a few key ways.

Earlier proposals were modeled on the $48.6 billion State Fiscal Stabilization Fund in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act-the stimulus program-which let states use their allocations first to restore state cuts to K-12 and higher education and then distribute the rest of the money to districts based on existing formulas.

Stimulus (ARRA) saved 329,000 jobs

Report Calculates Stimulus Saved 329,000 School Jobs Last Fall

Calif., Fla., N.Y. Account for One-Third of the Positions Spared

In the last three months of 2009, the education portion of the federal economic-stimulus program paid for 329,551 school-related jobs, such as teachers, librarians, and counselors, according to the latest reports that states and school districts filed with the U.S. Department of Education.

So far, about $69 billion of the nearly $100 billion in education aid contained in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has been awarded by the department to states. The primary goal of the stimulus package, particularly the $48.6 billion State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, was to prevent layoffs, create jobs, and otherwise spur the languishing economy.

Not surprisingly, the most education jobs were created or saved in the most-populous states: California, Florida, and New York, which accounted for one-third of the total number of jobs.

The latest reports, covering October through December, mirrored the first stimulus reports that came out earlier last year, when 325,000 education-related jobs were reported to have been saved or created.

It's difficult to compare the two jobs numbers, however, because federal officials changed how states and local grant recipients calculate the number of jobs saved and created.

The initial reporting requirement involved a complicated formula that required recipients to distinguish between a job saved and one created, and not necessarily to count jobs paid for by stimulus money that would have existed even without the new aid. The new formula asks recipients simply to calculate the number of jobs, based on hours worked, that were paid for with stimulus money.

As an additional note. I did some research  (recovery.gov). Texas, which claims not to have a budget crisis, was the second largest recipient of ARRA money.  But, they did not use it for teachers.